nhsManagers.net

19th October 2015 3

Live Health News | Weather | Archive
For Local Authority, Council news and comment subscribe FREE for councilManagers.net HERE

New Health Chat

9th November King's Fund 5.30pm

Lord Philip Hunt - shadow deputy leader House of Lords - former Trust Chair

What is the inside story of the H&SCAct, what is Labour's health policy?

This is looking like another sell-out event Tickets here.

A leg

News and Comment from Roy Lilley

I love this story:

A sect decided their god was going to end the world. A flood, they said, would engulf us all. On the appointed day they met and waited. Nothing happened. It didn't even rain. They woke up the next morning and everything had trundled on, just the same.

Did the sect disband? Give up? No, they consoled themselves with the idea that recognising their faithfulness, their god had relented and it was their commitment that had saved the world.

Barmy? Actually, no. It happened, in the US, in the 50's and was the source of a study by psychologist Leon Festinger. He infiltrated the group and reported events. He went on to describe a phenomenon we know, today, as 'cognitive dissonance' (CD).

CD, in English; the mess we get into when we are asked to hold two contradictory beliefs or values at the same time. In our world it explains a lot. Last week there were four examples.

First... Listen to the Tinker-Man, he sincerely believes his health policies are working, voters reassured and given a hiccup here and there, everything is jogging along nicely and under control.

The reality; 2/3rds of Trusts are 'unsafe', most of them can't balance their books, 33 don't have a permenant chief executive. No one has enough staff to be safe and in the first three months of the year we are nearly a Ł1bn out. Oh, and the junior doctors dispute...

Cognitive dissonance. The solution? A reshuffle.

Second... The CQC; they trundle about, costing the taxpayer Ł200m or more, telling us the same things. They press on. We've had; collegiate, light touch, deep dive and intelligent inspection; doing it for 16 years. If it was going to work it would have done so by now. Three in four hospitals 'failing'. Their annual report is a catalogue of not making a difference, presented as a triumph. Frankly, it is, as the BBC infers, a misleading, muddled mess and text-book CD.

The solution; bring back community health councils.

Third... Whistle-blowers; events that rip people's lives apart. Most of the time the issues are not worth the argument and dealt with promptly, can easily be fixed. What gets in the way? Cognitive Dissonance; bosses that cannot get their heads around the fact that their organisations are not as good as they think they are.

Last Friday I sat through a miserable morning at a conference where whistle-blowers recited their stories; bullying, neglect, obfuscation. Horrible. Cognitive Dissonance prevents their resolution. The belief the organisation is right when all the evidence points to the fact it is wrong.

The solution? An amnesty. Stop all proceedings on both sides. If whistle-blowers want to come back let the NHS find a space for them. Tell the lawyers to pack their bags. Drop all prosecutions, proceedings and hearings.

No blame, no fault, no culpability. Close the files. Draw a line, move on. Let the NHS start again and become the employer of choice and an exemplar of good practice we know it can be.

Forth... Safe staffing; actually, this is the odd-man out. This is more double-think than cognitive dissonance. Last week we stopped pretending there's enough money and nurses for Trusts to get near fulfilling NICE's potty 'wait for a problem and wave a red flag' guidance.

The new double-think is Trusts Boards will run safe without more money or nurses and rules. Pressured to balance the books the belief is they won't end up in the same mess as Mid-Staffs.

Perhaps there is number five... Nearer to home; we shouldn't eat ice cream, smoke and take more exercise... but calcium in dairy is good for me, loads of folk smoke and live to a ripe old age and people who exercise get injured. CD; the lies we tell ourselves!

Overcoming cognitive dissonance is, in many ways, like growing up (just like the Trust Boards are going to have to); looking in the mirror, confronting painful reality.

The truth won't go away by wrapping our minds around issues and making them fit our version of reality. We must unwrap them, meet them head on and deal with the ugliness of the actuality.

Question; if you call a tail, a leg, how many legs does a cat have?

Answer; four. The reality is; it doesn't matter what you call it, a tail will never be a leg.

-----------------------------------

Academy of Fabulous Stuff;

Have you looked at the fabulous stuff?

New 'shares' every day.

Make a note; be a sharer this week.

------------------------

Contact Roy - please use this e-address

roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net

Know something I don't - email me in confidence.

Leaving the NHS, changing jobs - you don't have to say goodbye to us! You can update your Email Address from the link you'll find right at the bottom of the page, and we'll keep mailing.

----------
Disclaimer

Medicine for Managers

Dr Paul Lambden

What does your face say about you?

Quite a lot it would seem!

--------------------

The Academy of Fabulous NHS Stuff

Wake up to some good ideas

Here.

------

Share your good stuff

here!

Latest 'shares'.

Team huddles; young people and their health concerns .

Here

Share your fabulous stuff.

---------------

October Awards Winners

Here - well done to all!

--------------

Vanguard New Stuff.

click here.

----------------

Follow us on Twitter

Web-site here.

Please share your good stuff!

---------------

News and Stuff

-------------------

>> Chair of the health select committee says - her doctor daughter has quit the NHS for Australia.

>> Jnr Docs dispute trundles on - all disputes, strikes and wars end up in talks; the sooner the DH and the BMA talk to each other the better.

>> Hip-hip hooray for Gladys Hooper - new hip at 112.

>> NI heart operations - beamed around the world.

>> Anti-biotic resistance - 30% fall could cause 6,000 deaths; I think we should start paying attention to this.

>> Quit smoking products handed out by NHS Scotland drops by I/3rd - is it the same in England?

>> Ban on overseas nurses lifted - temporarily.

>> eReferral Service - four months after go-live, no reports.

>> Nursing support staff - could do more.

>> Wiltshire CCG - cuts services in an effort to stay an 'autonomous organisation'. I would have though looking after patients might be a higher priority and maybe they should consider a merger?

-----------------

HealthChat

1st December

King's Fund 5.30pm

Janet Davies

New boss at the RCN

King's Fund 1st December 5.30 pm.

Details here.

--------------

Health Chat

21st October

King's Fund - 5.30pm

Keith McNeil

Sold out

-----------------

19th November

King's Fund 5.30pm

Lord Hunt

Labour's Health Leader in the Lords.

A remarkable career; from leader of NAHAT (a forerunner of the Confed) and Trust Chair to the front-line of politics.

This will be an absorbing evening of politics, policy and no few insider secrets (we hope). In conversation with Roy Lilley; come and hear from the heart of Westminster.

Details here

and

Philip Hunt writes here

Guest Editorial

the NHS in crisis and Monitor's new clothes.

----------------------

JOBS

Tell us about your jobs and post them for free.

Why pay to advertise when we will do it for nothing - and it works!

Give it a try.

-------------

Gossip

This is what I'm hearing;

if you know different,

tell me here

-------------

>> I'm hearing - The King's Fund and the Carbuncle are clubbing together to get the patron saint of hospital safety Don Berwick over from the US to 'support' the Vanguards. Only 5 days a year I hear - I expect him to walk across the Atlantic.

>> I'm hearing - trust NED Anu Singh appointed director for patient voice and insight. I wonder what that means?

-------------

Roger Steer

The NHS is in surplus

Fascinating dissection of NHS finance

Must read

Here.

-----------

Dr Rodney Jones

More fabulous analysis

Deaths and International Healthcare Expenditure

More Here